Condorcet Voting; Special Committee on Electoral Reform

[Markus Schulze]

Hallo,

there have been 9 submissions to the Canadian House of Commons
Special Committee on Electoral Reform where Condorcet voting is
recommended, either as a stand-alone election method (Maskin,
McKinnon, Schulze, Ungrin, Wibowo) or in combination with some
other election method (Citizens For Voter Equality, Zavitz,
Brekke, Bradshaw):

1. Eric Maskin:

http://www.parl.gc.ca/Content/HOC/Committee/421/ERRE/Brief/BR8401159/br-external/MaskinEric-e.pdf
http://www.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?Language=e&Mode=1&Parl=42&Ses=1&DocId=8402163#Int-9024038

2. Ron McKinnon:

http://ranked-pairs.ron-mckinnon.ca/wp-content/uploads/rp-en.pdf
http://ottawacitizen.com/opinion/columnists/mckinnon-this-is-the-fairest-method-of-voting
http://www.parl.gc.ca/Content/HOC/Committee/421/ERRE/WebDoc/WD8405589/Members_Reports/McKinnonRon-e.pdf
http://www.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?Language=e&Mode=1&Parl=42&Ses=1&DocId=8546545

3. Markus Schulze:

http://www.parl.gc.ca/Content/HOC/Committee/421/ERRE/Brief/BR8397842/br-external/SchulzeMarkus-e.pdf
http://m-schulze.9mail.de/long.pdf

4. Mark Ungrin:

http://www.parl.gc.ca/Content/HOC/Committee/421/ERRE/Brief/BR8559698/br-external/UngrinMark-e.pdf

5. Arif Sahari Wibowo:

http://www.parl.gc.ca/Content/HOC/Committee/421/ERRE/Brief/BR8549244/br-external/WibowoArifSahari-e.pdf

6. Citizens For Voter Equality:

http://www.parl.gc.ca/Content/HOC/Committee/421/ERRE/Brief/BR8560323/br-external/CitizenForVoterEquality-e.pdf

7. Peter Zavitz:

http://www.parl.gc.ca/Content/HOC/Committee/421/ERRE/Brief/BR8526384/br-external/ZavitzPeter-e.pdf

8. David Brekke:

http://www.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?Language=e&Mode=1&Parl=42&Ses=1&DocId=8442039#Int-9059472
http://electoralchange.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/PRP-White-Paper-rev3-June-14-Sept-30-2016HRDBDNDB.pdf

9. Chris Bradshaw:

http://www.parl.gc.ca/Content/HOC/Committee/421/ERRE/Brief/BR8518472/br-external/BradshawChris-e.pdf

*********

Here is the report of the Special Committee:

http://www.parl.gc.ca/Content/HOC/Committee/421/ERRE/Reports/RP8655791/421_ERRE_Rpt03_PDF/421_ERRE_Rpt03-e.pdf

In chapter 4.D.1.a.iii, Condorcet voting is described. Unfortunately,
this chapter only mentions Maskin and McKinnon.

In appendix G, Schulze is classified as "Alternative Vote/Ranked Ballot",
Wibowo is classified as "Single Transferable Vote", and Maskin and
Ungrin are classified as "Other Systems".

These classification inconsistencies are caused by the fact that,
immediately after Justin Trudeau announced that the Liberal Party
will study and consider ranked ballots and proportional representation,
IRV supporters began spreading the false claim that terms like
"ranked ballots" or "preferential voting" refer to IRV exclusively.
Therefore, there were ambiguities about what some terms
actually mean.

Markus Schulze

[Clay Shentrup]

That's really unfortunate Markus. I disagree with various other camps, such as the Condorcet advocates, but the IRV group is unique in their nearly universal disregard for the science of voting, and their tendency to make blatantly false statements. It makes sense given that IRV is such a bad system—it will tend to attract supporters who lack certain critical thinking skills.

In this case, I don't think the committee had much of a chance to arrive at a sensible conclusion, because they're not social choice theorists. So they don't even know how to evaluate all the arguments they're receiving from various groups. I'm sure it's also challenging on other complex topics like economic policy or climate change. Though voting theory is the most counterintuitive subject I've ever encountered.